Qatar Airways: Will it be grounded?

Is this a wish to become true situation for Qatar Airways stiffest competitors for UAE based Emirates Airline or Etihad Airways, and a comeback for Bahrain based Golf Airlines?

Qatar Airways flights are taking lengthy detours over Iranian and Omani airspace, affecting thousands of business and leisure travelers. Countries restricting their airspace to Qatar Airways is growing from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt to include Somalia and Yemen. Other countries have ended or lowered diplomatic ties to Qatar. Such countries include Jordan and Maldives. Sandwiched between Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia it would almost be impossible to avoid to touch the airspace 

However, Qatar Airways operations are running as normal with no disruptions to flights with the exception of those to the countries Qatar Airways has been restricted to fly to.  All affected passengers in Doha on route to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been assisted with alternative onward travel arrangements. The airline said: “At Qatar Airways, our passengers remain our utmost priority and we will continue to ensure they have a seamless journey to their final destinations.”

At the same time, Qatar Airways media relations has been very conservative and CEO Akbar Al Baker has not been very accessible and outspoken about the blockade of his country and his airline, but bits of what Saudi Arabia and allies are saying about Qatar’s connection and funding of terrorism has been justified by Qatar authorities. |

The Qatari foreign minister Mutlaq Al Qahtani told Qatar-based international news organization Aljazeera his country the Gulf country hosted the Taliban “by request by the US government” and as part of Qatar’s “open-door policy, to facilitate talks, to mediate and to bring peace”.  The Taliban opened its “political office” in Qatar in 2013.

In 2000 Qatar announced it will shut down an Israeli trade missionin Doha, and some experts in Israel told eTurboNews years later indirect trade relations between the Jewish State and Qatar were ongoing.

In a press release issued today, Qatar Airways proudly announced a 22% increase to $540.00 Million in profit for the five star airline.

An image posted online by flight tracking group Flightradar24 showed the restricted routes Qatar Airways flights were taking because of the blockade. The aircraft were being forced to take a single flight path in out of Doha.

The airline’s website shows slight adjustments in flight times to New Zealand and Australia but didn’t attribute those to the “blockade.”

“Many of Qatar Airways’ flights to southern Europe and Africa pass through Saudi Arabia. Flights to Europe will most likely be rerouted through Iran and Turkey,” Flightradar24 said. “Flights to Africa may route via Iran and Oman and then south.”

Alexandre de Juniac, the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) had expressed concern over the blockade and called for more openness at the recently concluded IATA annual meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Akbar Al Baker had left the meeting in a hurry to fly home in a private jet to deal with the new crisis.

“We would like borders to be reopened, the sooner the better,” the IATA chief told reporters in Cancun last Monday .”

Qatar may have a direct line to international waters but in terms of airspace it is almost completely surrounded by some very angry neighbors.

Qatar has very little airspace; it is largely surrounded by Bahrain’s flight information region (airspace). A slither on the south is managed by Saudi Arabia while the UAE is on the eastern border.

Civil aviation law is largely based on the Chicago Convention signed all the way back in 1944. It recognizes a country’s sovereignty to its airspace — basically that it can decide who lands and who doesn’t.

However, signatories to the “Transit Agreement” agree that international passenger flights can overfly their territory on the way to somewhere else.

Saudi Arabia has not signed the agreement, so it can do as it pleases. But Bahrain and the UAE have and so Qatar can legally still fly over them.

Qatar Airways appears to be trying to ruffle airspace feathers as little as possible. In the past,  passengers flying Qatar would have approached Doha through the UAE. But these flights are currently avoiding the UAE by charting a course close to the Persian Gulf through Iran.

But to get from that airspace to Qatar means flying through Bahrain’s territory. Which is exactly what Qatar’s jets are doing, albeit on one, now very congested, flight corridor that gives the airline a quick exit to Iran.

And Doha’s worst nightmare could be coming true. On Wednesday, authorities in Bahrain’s capital of Manama issued a new flight directive. For now, Qatar’s planes continue to take off from Doha, soaring directly into Bahrain, seemingly flying in the face of the directive.

It remains to be seen how Bahrain will respond. Whether they will turn a blind eye so long as Qatar confines itself to one short route through its airspace. Or if Bahrain will essentially force one of the largest airlines in the world to be grounded.